Janitor On Duty

April 2nd, 2007

5:19 PM

What were were you again?

Because I have nothing better to do, I'm compiling a list of romances with unusual shape-shifting heroes and/or heroines. "Unusual" is defined as something that is never featured in more than five stories before (therefore eagles, hawks, and dragons don't really count unless the author's treatment of such things is really unusual), with bonus points given to characters that shapeshift into not-so-stereotypical creatures associated with the virility, danger, masculinity/femininity, etc. For example, a hero who can shift into a pomeranian or a tapir.

Polar Heat by Mary Winter (hero, polar bear).The Collector 4: Eight Arms To Hold You by Ally Blue (hero, octopus).How about unusual heroes with abilities or physical features that are rather unusual, like, say, a third eye or something? I'm talking about really unusual, so the usual generic psychic powers don't count. I'm interested to know if there are such books out there. I can't think of any outside of some Japanese naughty cartoons that I'd rather forget about. I'm sure many Changeling Press titles will fall under this category, so any suggestions will be most welcome.

Anyone has more to add to the list? I'm going to look for that one with the octopus hero just to see how the author pulls that one off.

Posted by Mrs G:

A Faerie Tale - LSB. It's an anthology with two of the stories having unusual heroes. Tiffany Aaron's story, Tiger by the Tail, has a Tasmanian Tiger as a hero and Jodi Lynn Copeland's story, Into the Arctic, has a were-penguin. Yes, I said penguin.;)

Ciar--do a jellyfish! All that stinging and globulous pustulating. Oh my! BTW, I HAVE to read The Biggest Kahuna. That just sounds too good for words.

April 6th, 2007 @ 6:07 AM

Posted by Anon:

Is there no end to this shapeshifting rainbow? I'm all for these two-for-one heroes but a shark? Isn't that all teeth and, um, no arms? And an octopus? Squick factor just spiralled out of control. hehehe Now I know bears and panthers have been done but do we just judge the book by its shapeshifter hero now? Where's the story in all of this? (Oh and I just have to ask...with the polar bear hero...does he hibernate in winter? :P )

Boy am I jumping into this late! But here I go anyhow...
For those Cthulhu/"noodly appendage" fans, you might already know about Tentacle Sex, the 'zine devoted to, well, tentacle sex. I've never read it, but damn. I WANT to! Sez the rabid Lovecraft fan in me LOL

Anon, my octo-boy isn't squicky, honest! There's no sex in the octopus form, although that's mostly because I really didn't think it would fit in the story. And yes, there is a story! In fact there's way more plot than sex in this one. Waaaaaaay more.

Why did I write an octopus shifter? Because I have this weird thing for cephalopods O_O